Florence Pugh broke out in a big way in 2019, delivering an Oscar-nominated performance and starring in a huge horror film, but it was Fighting with My Family that started her impressive year. Pugh has parlayed the success of that huge year into becoming one of the top actors of her generation. The 2020s are filled with great performances by her in some of the biggest movies released.
Most people likely recognize Pugh from her role as the beloved Yelena Belova in various MCU projects, but she’s also starred in Best Picture winner Oppenheimer, the blockbuster sequel Dune: Part Two, and lent her voice to the acclaimed Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. A look back at her work in Fighting with My Family goes a long way to showcasing the talent that made her such a star.
Florence Pugh Started 2019 By Starring In Fighting With My Family
She Played Professional Wrestler Paige
Although she had already impressed with her work in films like Lady Macbeth and Outlaw King, it was Fighting with My Family that changed the trajectory of Florence Pugh’s career. In this great wrestling movie, she plays Saraya Knight, known at the time as Paige, a WWE wrestler who comes from a family where everyone is a wrestler. It’s a unique story that was perfect to bring to the big screen, which is why Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was a producer on it.
While creative liberties were taken with the story, what stood out above all was Pugh’s performance.
The film, based on the documentary The Wrestlers: Fighting with My Family, follows Saraya’s journey from the independent wrestling scene in the U.K. to the biggest stage in the business, WWE. While creative liberties were taken with the story, what stood out above all was Pugh’s performance. She embodied Paige and stood toe-to-toe while sharing the screen with veteran actors like Vince Vaughn, Lena Headey, and Nick Frost.
Fighting with My Family was a mild success at the box office but the critical reception was much stronger. It holds an impressive 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and the main aspect to receive praise was Pugh’s lead performance.
Florence Pugh’s 2019 Set The Tone For The Rest Of Her Career
Her Career Afterward Built On Her Performance In Fighting With My Family
Throughout her career, Florence Pugh has proven that she’s a versatile actor. She can nail comedic beats as Yelena in the MCU, deliver heartbreaking performances as Almut in We Live in Time, and steal every scene in a large ensemble as Jean Tatlock in Oppenheimer. A lot of Pugh’s success comes back to that 2019 when she earned an Oscar nomination for Little Women and put on one of the best performances in recent memory in Midsommar.
More than any other film though, Fighting with My Family set the stage for the kind of characters Pugh would go on to play. Saraya/Paige is someone who has to put on a tough exterior because of the world she’s in but has a lot of trauma and is hurting beneath the surface. That’s exactly who Yelena is as a character and it’s one of the reasons she’s become so popular.
In Fighting with My Family, Pugh delivers on the emotional moments better than any other in the film, which is a trend for her career.
In Fighting with My Family, Pugh delivers on the emotional moments better than any other in the film, which is a trend for her career. She perfectly captures the shattered protagonist dealing with loss in A Good Person and, most recently in Thunderbolts*, she is the heart of the film with a crushing monologue about the regrets she has in life.
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